On Teaching And Teacher Training

September 02, 1985|By Jon Margolis.

WASHINGTON — It must be time for school to start again because the teachers are complaining again.

One thing they complain about is that they are not held in high enough esteem. One reason they are not held in higher esteem is that they complain too much, especially as the school year is about to begin. This is bad public relations because it reminds those who are not teachers that teachers have just had about three months off while the rest of us were working.

This year, though, the teachers have a new complaint. With teachers in short supply in some places, school boards have taken to hiring teachers who are not officially certified, licensed, card-carrying pedagogues with 87 hours of child psychology credits.

Good. And if the teachers knew what was good for them they`d quit griping about it. What most of us want of the men or women teaching our kids American history, physics or auto mechanics is that they know a lot about American history, physics or auto mechanics. Knowing about the history of American elementary education is not important.

Sure, teachers should be trained in teaching techniques and they should know enough child psychology not to cause any more psychic trauma than absolutely necessary. But let`s face it, some trauma is necessary. As the song says, it`s only being crazy that keeps us from going insane. Besides, officially certified, licensed teachers probably have caused as much childhood misery and trauma as drunken fathers, so all those required courses in being well-adjusted don`t do much good.

At any rate, most of the stuff needed to get a teaching certificate can be learned by taking one or two courses, or, better yet, on the job itself. One learns to teach the way one learns to write, by doing it, not by studying it.

Instead, we have evolved a system that not only requires people to spend countless hours studying drivel, but actually rewards them for it. Teachers in most states can get raises by taking more courses. In the subject they`re teaching? Well, sometimes, but usually in education.

Then if they really want to move up in the world and be principals or superintendents, they have to take courses in administration and management, which may be even less useful than courses in cognitive psychodrama. Everyone who works for a company knows what is taught in management school. Basically, it is one course that should be known as tochas-covering 101, in which one is taught never to make a decision, lest it be the wrong decision.

But teaching is not alone. We live in an over-credentialized society. In some places, you need a college degree to join the police force. If the college degree really guaranteed that the rookie cop knew history, economics and psychology, it might make sense. But it doesn`t. Cops, like writers and teachers, learn their jobs on the job.

Even the law is a bit more flexible. According to Fred Franklin of the American Bar Association in Chicago, four states--California, Vermont, Virginia and Washington--allow would-be lawyers to work in a law office for a few years and take the bar exam. If they pass it, they can practice law there (though about half the states won`t grant them the privileges of the bar). It`s even possible, though rare, for people to be admitted to law school without going to college.

That`s a long way from the days when Abraham Lincoln could become a tolerably good lawyer without contaminating himself with higher education. But at least it shows some awareness that what is important is whether someone can do something, not the number of required courses or degrees the person has.

We`ng, dealing blackjack, playing the saxophone--and the devil with their credentials. Who knows, maybe even the teachers would stop complaining.